I wanted something that wasn’t a bean dish to take to my family’s Easter dinner. I eat like a vegan and my brother and future sister in law are vegetarians so I’m usually the one who brings the dish that the three of us can definitely eat. Being Good Friday, they’d probably be ok since they both eat fish and we don’t eat meat on this day.

But…it’s a holiday and a family gathering so I wanted something special for me at least. We knew there would be my aunt’s popular bean salad hence the desire to make something different.
My research during the week lead me to this recipe for a seitan mushroom roast. It looked great and I also decided I’d serve it with this gravy. But then I decided to stuff it with something so I made a spinach and sundried tomato stuffing. I’d been a bit hesitant in the past to make seitan because it seemed so complicated but I’m glad I finally decided to try it. It was very easy!

Start off by making the filling and when it’s cooking you can assemble what you need for the seitan. Once the seitan is in the oven you can focus on the gravy. It’s a very appealing dish for a celebration.

Spinach and sundried tomato stuffing

2 onions, chopped

1 cup sundried tomatoes, sliced thin or chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1/2 cup white wine

2 large handfuls of spinach, chopped

1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs

Sautee the onion in a little bit of olive oil then using water in the non-stick pan whenever it starts sticking. Let it cook until it’s golden and then add the garlic and tomatoes along with the herbs. Let it cook for about 5 minutes then add the wine. Once the wine evaporates a bit throw in the spinach and stir it until it is wilted and well combined with the filling. Sautee until it is not too liquid. Add the breadcrumbs and remove from heat.

But then you roll it out into a rectangle instead of rolling it out into a log. Spread the stuffing on top of your rectangle but leave a little bit of space on the end so that your roll will stick to itself.

Roll it up using the foil to help you and then wrap it tightly into a log. Fold up the foil and wrap the ends tight. You should end up with a huge foil sausage.

Mushroom Gravy

There’s no need to mess with a good thing so I followed the recipe to a tee except for using Umami paste instead of miso since that’s what i had on hand. I also made the recipe 1.5 times the original batch. We love gravy.

I baked it for 70 minutes at 375 and every 20 minutes I rolled the log so that it would cook and brown evenly.

I let it sit in the foil for a bit to cool off then I unwrapped it, placed it in a dish and sliced off the end bits for a nicer presentation. I spooned the gravy on top and around it. Now it’s waiting patiently for when it’s time to go to my parent’s house so we can try it.

I know it’s good because the end pieces have been devoured 😉

Update: It was a big hit at our family Easter dinner…even the non-veggies loved it.